The Trump administration plans to announce a coalition of several countries who will escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The coalition, US officials told the WSJ, was still deliberating whether to begin its operations before or after the end of ongoing Iranian hostilities.
The White House declined to comment to the WSJ on the upcoming announcement.
This comes after US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the US, along with several other countries affected by “Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait,” would be sending warships to keep the Strait “open and safe.”
In the post, Trump listed China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK as examples of countries affected by the closure, expressing hope that they would send ships to the area.
Oil industry fears market in turmoil, say only solution reopening Hormuz Strait
The WSJ also reported on Monday that the oil industry was concerned that the interruption in transportation through the Hormuz Strait was likely to continue to cause an increase in oil prices, both across the US and internationally.
The White House has been working "around the clock" with energy companies in an effort to stabilize the market, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. However, many in the oil industry, the WSJ claimed, believed that the only solution is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“We do crisis management exercises… The big one has always been something in the Middle East that shuts the Strait of Hormuz,” said Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on the Ruthless Podcast this week.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW that Iran would only be closing the Strait to Israeli and US ships, claiming that other ships are free to pass, and that there currently are “many tankers and ships that are passing through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.